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Vagabond

Synopsis

Mona Bergeron is dead, her frozen body found in a ditch in the French countryside. From this, the film flashes back to the weeks leading up to her death. Through these flashbacks, Mona gradually declines as she travels from place to place, taking odd jobs and staying with whomever will offer her a place to sleep. Mona is fiercely independent, craving freedom over comfort, but it is this desire to be free that will eventually lead to her demise.

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if the protagonist were a dude instead of a girl i bet a lot fewer people would mention how unlikable" the character is & would instead focus on "his" complexity!! agnès varda is queen of gender dynamics & waaaay ahead of her time

Vagabond is Agnes Varda's hyrmn to absolute female autonomy at all costs, a post-apocalyptic road movie without a car, a biker movie without a gang or a bike. A Nuclear Winter in advance of The Bomb or The Leak or The Meltdown. Vagabond looks like what Amebix's Arise sounds like, what Celtic Frost's To Mega Therion sounds like, what Sacrilege's Behind The Realms Of Madness sounds like (especially that last one). The end has come and gone many times, or is immanent & with us always. Everyone wants to give Mona a job, a reason to exist. Mona already exists but that isn't…

Varda intentionally sets this amongst abundance. She takes a character she knows is going to be seen as unsympathetic by so many eyes, and she frames her from everyone else's point of view, letting other voices slowly build a picture for us that may or may not be accurate. What we get from the titular character is just another perspective, and by her own admission, she does not always tell people the whole truth. The insights derived from this are the humanizing of those scorned and unsettled and an understanding of the disaffection that the rote, monolithic normal world can instill.

a woman struggles up the path, huddled in her filthy blanket. she needs water, bread, any sort of sustenance. people seem to run from her gaze. she continues until suddenly, a blast of color erupts. there are men everywhere, dressed in costumes, throwing grapes. they laugh. they paw. they smear the fruit on her skin as she screams and screams and no one listens.

in vagabond, our main character seems to know instinctively that this is a harsh world. she wanders under a grey color palette, dirt clogging her nails. she snaps at people who try to help her and angrily rebuffs kindness. she's spiky, defensive, furious. how could…

Unfolding like the finest of Jarmusch joints, Vagabond is a silencing glimpse at the intoxicating effects of the noisy world Mona finds herself drifting through. She rejects people as she's rejected, perpetuating her paradoxical lack of stability in a stubborn protest for her right to be free. As much as this might sound like martyrdom, Varda excels in showing us Mona's reasoning to keep moving, never failing to highlight the tedium of domesticity in equal measure to the grimy heights of homelessness. When the farmer who takes Mona in later says of her leaving "It's not wandering, it's withering," it seems as if he's not only convincing himself of her truth, but also his own. Wandering is withering he insists,…

This girl is a rumor. I feel like I've known this girl, but who knows if I really have. Breaking all the walls, beyond the walls, there are no walls. Ideas, memories, grudges, odors, someone whose freedom made me uncomfortable. I've been parts of this girl, not whole parts but essential parts. The only weird thing about her gender is that we might think it was weird for a girl to be like this. Everyone is like this, sort of.

At her best she's like a cat, affectionate and soft. At her worst she's still like…

From the very first frame, the 1985 drama VAGABOND ensures its protagonist’s fate. Sandrine Bonnaire plays Mona, a free-spirited woman who, troubled by the direction of her seemingly stable life, chooses to abandon responsibility and her few personal connections to wander the European countryside. During her aimless journey, she joins others without shelter or law in their collective attempts to survive. However, her efforts are ultimately fruitless, as she falls victim to an unnamed illness and eventually winds up in a ditch. The idea of mortality is thoroughly explored throughout the film. Writer and Director Agnes Varda’s stance on the true mystery of meaning in life and death reveals itself in subtle ways with each rotating character, often portrayed in…

Agnes Varga always surprises me. I think the English version of this title, "vagabond" has a more negative connotation than the movie which is sympathetic and does not really pass judgement on the main character. She is driven by a pure philosophy that is ever compromised no matter what. Living like a honey badger. Reminded me a bit of Joaquin Phoenix in The Master and the character from Pickpocket.

Someone please tell me if this weird fastival at the end of the movie where people dress up like beets (?)